we'll be back to break it down for you tomorrow. see you then. >> bob: are you going to break it down? >> greg: i'm going to break it down. ♪ ♪ captioned by closed captioning services, inc >> bret: good evening. i'm bret baier. this is "special report." live from the daniel l. richie center on the campus of the university of denver, where in just about three hours president obama and romney will walk out on this stage behind me in the first of three debates in the next 20 days. tonight's session will be divided in to six 15-minute segments. allotted to topics related to the economy, healthcare and government. tens of millions of americans will be watching. according to the polls, most have already made up their minds. one recent poll says 7% of likely voters are still undecided. they will be the primary targets tonight. as the neigh watches. chief white house

correspondent ed henry begins our coverage. >> in the run township the clash that will help decide whether he gets another four years, president obama stayed mum. leaving the heavy lifting yet again today to former president bill clinton in new hampshire, who made the case this is a choice about the next four years. >> the economy is not fixed. i am telling you, nobody can fix this much damage in four years. but the president's economic plan is better in the short run, better in the long run. >> reporter: the president made the opposite case in 2009. vowing to get the economy fixed in three years or this would be in his words a one-term proposition. which is why senator marco rubio told fox he believes the president will be vulnerable tonight if romney focuses on this point. >> we can't afford four more years of barack obama. we can barely aforfour more months. if we have four more years of president obama we can't wait four years for the economy to start growing. >> reporter: that may be resonating as the race tightening again in latest nbc

news, "wall street journal" poll. romney is trailing by three points, within the margin of error. 46% of registered voters approve of the president's handling of the economy. 51% disapprove. top aides say the president's strategy tonight is to try to turn his weaknesses on the economy and deficit to strengths. by roughing up romney on the idea he will hurt the middle class. >> he says he will cut the deficit, please. he wants $2 trillion in new defense spending that the pentagon didn't ask for. $5 trillion tax cut, future of the wealthy. >> reporter: the claim is complicated by the way biden framed the argument. >> how they can justify raising taxes in the middle class has been buried the last four years. how in lord's name can they justify raising their taxes? >> obama officials today insisted that was not a gaffe, biden clarified. >> the middle class was buried by the policies of romney and

ryan supported. >> republicans like rubio are off to the races. >> those happen to be the words that the distinguished vice president of the united states mr. joe biden. no, don't boo. he is the best thing we've got going, guys. >> reporter: now denver has always been big for this president. in 2008 is where he launched the hope and change in front of the great columns of the democratic convention. 2009. this is where he signed the stimulus in law. tonight, he puts it all on the line trying to make his case for a second term. bret? >> bret: ed, thank you. experts will tell you the challenger often gets a slight bump in the polls after the first debate by standing next to the president. romney is hoping for that and more as he takes half the spotlight tonight. chief political correspondent carl cameron has that part of the story. >> reporter: romney prepared for weeks.

57% for the latest gallup poll think the president will win the debates to only 33% for romney on this evening main topic the economy economy, romney has an edge. 50% say things will improve if he becomes president to 35% who say they will get worse. if the president is re-elected, only 48% say it will get better to 40% who think it will worsen. romney released a new ad straight to camera today foreshadowing tonight's principal message. >> too many americans are struggling, living paycheck to paycheck. more americans live in poverty than when president obama took office. >> healthcare reform will be a key debate flash point. romney wants to repeal obama care and the president is shower to call out the governor for passing a similar program in massachusetts. tax policy is also a huge area of dispute. romney has been on defense for his infamous remark about the 47% who don't pay income taxes. he hopes to neutralize that, arguing a choice between big government dependency and economic prosperity and freedom. >> we should measure the compassion how many fellow

americans are able to get good paying jobs, not by how many are on welfare. >> democrats unveil a web page, arguing that the republican ticket has avoided important specific details. >> both sides have numerous fact checking web pages and social media platforms for the post debate spin. romney's crafted quick comebacks with portman, his mock debate sparring partner. he practiced to keep his cool in what he predicts will be deception by the president. >> i'm not going to fool people to thinking things he doesn't. he wants to fool people thinking things i don't. that ends in the debate. >> so tonight romney believes he has the most to gain as the challenger, the moment he steps on that stage and begins to share the spotlight with the president who the romney campaign believes has the most to lose because he is the incumbent. romney spent much of the day today behind closed doors, a it will with the staff but mostly with family not to leave it in the locker room and break it out big time when

the game clock starts. bret? >> bret: carl cameron in spin room. we'll be there in a bit. thank you. obama campaign is calling 2007 video of senator obama then delivering a racially charged speech in virginia is distraction and accusing allies of romney of spreading the tape to the media. the romney come pain denies having -- campaign denies having any part in it. it surfaced last night on daily caller.com and thin ran on "hannity." the speech was open to the press in hampton university in june of 2007. we covered that speech on "special report" with brit hume. ran a sound bite from senator obama on his concern about the federal response to hurricane katrina. other media outlets covered it as well. but what was not covered then was senator obama's praise for his controversial pastor jeremiah wright. the additional comments what about he called disparity in the way new orleans got federal assistance after katrina and his charge that

that was because of race. >> there is a law, federal law when you get reconstruction money from the federal government called the stafford act. basically it says when you get federal money you have to give a 10% match, local government has to come up with 10%. every $10 federal government comes up with, local government has to give $1. now here is the thing. when 9/11 happened in new york city, they waived the stafford act and said this is too serious a problemch we can't expect new york city to rebuild on its own. forget that dollar you have to put in. here is $10. that was the right thing to d do. when hurricane andrew struck in florida, people said look at this devastation. we don't expect you to come up with your own money here. here is the money to rebuild. we're in the going to wait for

you to scratch it together. because you're part of american family. what is happening in new orleans? where is your dollar? where is your stafford act money. makes no sense. tells me the bulle bullet hasn't been taken out. [ applause ] tells me that somehow the people down in new orleans don't care about it much. >> bret: it turns out at first after katrina congress did not waive the stafford act, that 10% local match requirement that then senator obama was referring to for new orleans. but it was waived by congress in late may 2007. two weeks before obama's speech. adding to that, senator obama voted against the bill that included the provision for new orleans. part of the bill that increased iraq war funding. democrats say it's ancient

history five years ago. political analysts expect more tape from both sides on 33 days. positive day on wall street. the dow gained 12. s&p 500 finished ahead five. nasdaq was up 15. the struggling economy is blamed for another year of declining birthrate. cdc says there were fewer than 4 million in 2011 down 1% from the previous year. the lowest number since 1999. hispanic births were down 6%. 2% down for african-americans. followup on last night's story about the obama administration urging defense contractors not to issue legally required layoff notices despite impending cuts due to the budget impasse. known as the sequestration. mike emanuel has the update. >> by law they're required to issue layoff notices to employees they may need to cut if the half trillion in

automatic cuts known as sequestration take effect january 2. the obama administration told contractors they don't need to follow the warn act issuing layoff notices 60 days out and offered to pay for legal bills if the contractors are later sued. one legal expert says it's not following the spirit of the law. >> the administration is saying until it gives the companies specific numbers, it's not triggered. ultimately, the administration would likely prevail but it would be a close question. >> the warn act designed to protect "workers, fair families and communities requiring employers with 100 or more employees to provide 60 calendar days advance written notice of plant closing and mass layoff affecting 50 more employees at single site of employment. they note it won't be the administration officials paying the price. >> this is a game of chicken where the two parties in the car are not going over the cliff. it will be thousands of workers. >> if there isn't a legal

price to pay, there could be political one if layoff letters are issued ahead of election day. >> george mason university center for regional analysis studied impact of the scheduled cut on swing state. in virginia, 122,770 jobs are at risk. in florida, 39,246. in pennsylvania, 36,000 157. north carolina, new hampshire, and nevada some of the other campaign battlegrounds facing job losses. arizona senator john mccain says companies have a choice. whether to rely on the administration's politically motivated guidance or to comply with the law. "i can assure them i will do everything in my power to ensure that taxpayer dollars are not used to compensate contractors who do not comply with the law." while the administration is betting it will prevail on the showdown, congress has the power of the purse. beyond this fight, there is also a concern this would gut the warn act and may hurt workers in the communities if

employers don't feel required to give out layoff notices. bret? >> bret: emanuel back in washington. thank you. now to tonight's text to vote question. we thought we'd ask you the memorable debate moment. we had four. sr1 to ronald reagan to president carter in 1980. there you go again on democratic charges for medicare. text sr2 for lloyd benson to dan quail in 1988. he use jack kennedy and you're no jack kennedy. sr3. size in 2000. sr4. gerald ford's answer in 1976 there was no soviet domination of eastern europe. results a little later. next up, the latest on the libya investigation. [ male announcer ] there are only so many foods

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and lock in your rate for 12 months today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? >> bret: the white house is condemning the syrian shelling of turkish border town that killed five people. turkey retaliated shelling targets in syria. the obama administration issued a statement saying, "we stand with our turkish allies." pentagon spokesman called it another example of the depraved behavior of the syrian regime. and why it must go. we are learning new details tonight of how organized the

attackers were at the u.s. mission in libya. how disorganized the obama administration response has been since that deadly night. chief intelligence correspondent catherine herridge has the latest from washington. >> fox news learned that there is now significant evidence of former guantanamo detainee sufyan bin qumu that personally trained some of the operatives in the benghazi consulate september 11. the initial claim it was not premeditated and thrown together in a single day in response to the cairo demonstration in video continues to unravel. >> it was certainly before the tate of that event. they had kill and capture teams and they had other information. >> rogers the chairman of the house intelligence committee said in the month before the attack, the al-qaeda affiliate joined forces with other islamists. >> we do know that over the course of time they had been looking for western targets. so al-qaeda in the madrab looking for the western targets. >> more than three weeks after the attack, consulate in

benghazi is still not secure. according to a "washington post" reporter on the ground, sensitive documents including the ambassador's itinerary, personnel files and records outlining experts for random loose weapons can be found in plain sight. >> the area is dangerous for the f.b.i. but not enough to increase security. >> former c.i.a. director porter goss tells fox his contacts in the intelligence community speak of deep disappointment, anger over the failure at benghazi. >> the level of frustration is probably higher than it's ever been among operatives overseas because there are no new rules of engagement how to deal with unconventionm warfare. >> they gather evidence, 60 reported ince tents including the rpg attack on the british ambassador in benghazi if june, secretary of state hillary clinton warned against casting judgment. >> let me start by cautioning everyone against seizing on any single statement or piece of information to draw time conclusions. >> clinton emphasized the

investigation is personal. >> we knew the four men we lost. they're not just names or profiles to us. they are our colleagues. and our friends. >> the state department internal investigation known as accountability review board or arb is not expected to report the findings until well after the election. it was issued five months after the attacks. >> bret: we know you will stay on it. still ahead, i'm heading to the spin room. we will talk to robert gibbs on round one and romney top advisor joins to us discuss the governor strategy for tonight's debate.

>> bret: welcome back to denver. we're going to talk about the debate with the obama campaign, senior advisor, robert gibbs. to get some perspective from that campaign. robert, thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me. >> bret: what does the president have to do tonight? the president needs to and what he wants to do is have a conversation directly with the american people. talk about the economy, where we have been, most importantly what we have to do to continue strengthening it for the middle class families and moving forward, creating more jobs, putting people back to work. if we do that, he will have a good night. >> bret: vice president biden yesterday hat what many people are saying was a big gaffe. saying that the middle class families were buried over the past four years. your response to that, romney

campaign jumped op it right away. i think the middle class families have been buried for many, many years. working harder and making less. they have been buried by a led to thead economic economic calamity we inherited four years ago. we have been trying to dig out from being buried in the avalanche. this is whether we create more jobs or to what romney wants to do to go back to policies that got us in that mess? >> bret: is the president going on the offensive? on the >> i don't know that the president -- i don't think the president looks at this like a boxing or sparring match. again, his audience is the american people. having that conversation with him, talking to them about how we create jobs, how we double our manufacturing, how we double experts.

his focus is on american people not his opponent. >> i want to talk to you about libya. you were on "fox news sunday" with chris wallace. you said this. >> well, i think, as you heard ambassador rice say, the best information we had at the point in which he gave that answer is the answer she gave. look, ambassador rice has access to far more intelligence data than i do. the most important thing is we get to the bottom of the intelligence and what happened and may or may not cause this incident. >> bret: we now know the intelligence then was not the best information. we know there were 12 incidents targeting that area. security wise. known by the intelligence community. it seems like there was a lot that the administration know. they went out and said they did. >> i think everybody recognizes that benghazi and parts of libya are and continue to be extremely

dangerous places. we will tell people what we when we know it. it killed four americans and each day we learn more about what happened. we need to make sure the consulate from people they need to work there. >> bret: can't you say okay, there wasn't security there? obviously. there wasn't enough security there. let's evaluate what we need at each one of the places and mike sure it never happens again and put responsibility on libyans, egyptians throughout the middle east. they have to protect the embassy and people that work there. i was heartened as many were

to watch peep of libya in days after that attack. they want to disband and disarm the militia. >> bret: the f.b.i. still can't get in benghazi. >> it's a dangerous place, bret. no doubt. we want to find out what happens. what let up to the incident. what intelligence we can uncover about it. nobody will rest until we have it. >> bret: it's playing politically, the latest "wall street journal"/nbc poll says do you approve or disapprove of the way the president is handling the situation, egypt and libya and the political unrest in arab countrys? 45-46 disapprove. foreign policy, 46 to president. 40 to romney. that is closing. is this a vulnerability for the president for your campaign? >> no.

we will have the debate on foreign policy and the president is anxious to talk about how the country is safer than we've been in a long time. the daniel and deg regation we've done to al-qaeda. no doubt, they -- deg regation to al-qaeda. there are dangerous places throughout the world. benghazi is one of them. >> bret: robert gibbs, thank you. >> thank you for having me again. >> bret: okay. on the other side of the break, eric fermstrom with the romney campaign joins us with that campaign's perspective.

>> bret: less than two-and-a-half hours from now, governor romney and president obama will be on that stage. no grapevine tonight so we can bring you more debate coverage. we just heard, as you know from obama senior advisor robert gibbs. now joined by romney senior advisor eric burnstrom. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> bret: what does the

governor need to do tonight? >> talk about the choice that faces american voters. a big choice with president obama, me we can have four years like the last four year. with governor romney, we can put this country back on the path to the real recovery, with more jobs and rising incomes for all americans. if you look back over the last fur years and be objective about it, you will see we have fewer jobs, household incomes have gone down. we have record breaking debt. more spending in washington. raided medicare to pay for obamacare. we can't afford as a country to continue with the policies of the last four years. governor romney has a plan to create 19 million jobs by the end of his first term in office. it will be a real recovery with more jobs and riding incomes for everyone. >> it's wednesday. we have had three full days of experts saying what governor romney needs to do.

is he going to go on the offensive and take the attack to president obama in the debate? >> he will talk about the choices. governor romney up against the president of the united states. incumbent and represents the powerful office in the world. he has substantial experience. he has an advantage but people will see with romney is a proven business leader, executive who has real economy experience. who led in different enterprises. he led a state that faced similar circumstances that the nation finds himself in today. >> bret: you heard criticism from the conservatives you haven't taken the fight to all the charges that the obama campaign leveled, including that middle class families

will see taxes increase by $2,000. there have been commercials in battleground states across the country that really went unanswered for months on end. >> politics is like sports. people follow it closely. they feel passionate about it. everybody has an opinion. with respect to the governor plans for tax reform, he has a plan , pro-growth plan to cut taxes for the middle class because he will allow them to save and invest tax-free. unlike president obama, he has no plans to raise taxes. president obama has plans to raise taxes in this term and the next term. if he does that, he will plunge us off the fiscal cliff to another recession. this is why this choice facing the american people is critical. >> bret: when you hear the obama campaign and all the folks say, and interview after interview say we want specifics of how these

loopholes will close and how you will pay for $5 trillion in tax cuts, are we going to hear it tonight? >> i think what you will hear from governor romney is the same thing we heard from president reagan in 1986. in 1986, the last time we undertook substantial tax reform, president reagan or ticklated -- articulated his principles. he laid out the broad guideline and guide him in his negotiation with congress. we did something great for the american people back then. we pushed down rates. that created economic expansion. that is what governor romney wants to do. lower rates across the board. he will reduce the burden on the middle class by allowing them to save and invest tax free. >> bret: in a revenue neutral way. >> for those at the upper end of the scale we get rid of their deductions and credits. so that their share of the tax burden won't change. no tax break for upper income,

for the middle class. those who have been affected most horribly by the last four years of the bad economy. they will get a tax cut. >> bret: 30 second left. you heard robert gibbs about the libya situation. your take on the administration, and how that is going and will you jump on that? >> well, with all due respect to robert i don't think he was being honest with you. i think what we're seeing is the unraveling of the obama foreign policy. overseas we have people attac attacking our embassy. the muslim brotherhood has come power in egypt. our friends in israel have been set adrift. we have serious problems. the obama response to these events raised more questions. governor romney believes in a strong foreign policy and why you fight so hard to reverse cut to defense budget which

are due to take place under this president in the new year. >> bret: foreign policy, different debate. probably not tonight. eric, thank you so much for the time. >> thank you. >> bret: okay. don't forget tonight's text to vote question. what is most memorable debate moment? we have four to choose from. text sr1 to 36288 for ronald reagan to president carter in 1980. there you go again. about the democratic choices on medicare. text sr2 for senator lloyd benson to dan quayle in 1988 he knew jack kennedy and you're no jack kennedy. sr3, al gore audible sigh in 2000. sr4 for gerald ford answer in 1976 that there is no soviet domination of eastern europe. results later. next, the fox all-stars.

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governor reagan again typically is against such a proposal. >> governor? >> is there you go again. i will not make age an issue of this campaign. i am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. [ laughter ] >> i served with jack kennedy. i knew jack kennedy. jack kennedy was a friend of mine. senator, you near jack kennedy. [ applause ] >> i can see my wife. and i think she is thinking gee, i wish you would go to the private sector.

>> i'm going to try to help you do that. >> bret: great debate moments there. could there be one of those tonight? bring in the panel tonight. here with me in denver, fox news senior political analyst brit hume and national correspondent for the "new york times." in washington, jonah goldberg, at large editor of national review online. charles lane, opinion writer for the "washington post." brit, we have been talking about the debate for a couple of days. what does each person have to do? >> well, it seems to me that the person with the heavier burden and the greater opportunity is governor romne romney. he is less known to the public. the president is a well known personality. and people i think mostly formed an opinion about him and his record. for romney's challenge is to get people to believe what he is planning to do is better than what the president has done. and make people believe that.

he talks about it all the time. but i think what he needs to do is talk about it with enough specificity and concisely enough to make it fit in a debate answer. that's a hard thing to do. that is what his greater challenge is. i think the president, he needs to make no mistakes. he needs to try to get through this intact and believe his lead will survive it. >> bret: does make nomean hold ? does it mean dean smith and the unc basketball four corner offense? or does it mean he goes on the attack to try to get under governor romney's scen? >> i think for the president, one of his bad habits that shown up in past debates is tendency to get a little bit snarky with the opponent. remember when he referred to hillary clinton and you're likable enough. he has a tendency to get proffesorial. long winded, too, in the answers. try not to be long winded with

mine. those are the pitfalls i see him for him on his side of the debate. he has done a good job in a negative way and he will try to reinforce that. >> we have had several weeks since the convention. this is a chance remind republican what is they like about him and what they don't like about president obama. i'm not sure there will be a huge winner or loser from the debate but it can reset things a little bit. away from the tv ad and strategy of the specific chicago strategist and boston. but two men. they don't know each other. never been on stage together since 2004.

watching the dynamics something they can't practice with the two of them. the first debate is important. millions of americans will be voting. they're later than they were. this is a key opportunity for romney to remind people he is still in this race. >> for people obsessed with the election for thousand years like we have, it's easy to forget there are millions of people for whom this is one of the first time they heard romney talk at any length. his convention speech wasn't that well viewed. they didn't watch the republican primary debate. he is introducing himself to enormous number of people, enormous number of it will deciders. undecided and swingable

independents. if he comes out presidential and goes on the offense with obama there is potential for a lot of upside for him. >> bret: we all have pollitis watching polls. but there is a new one today. the "wall street journal"/nbc poll puts the race at 4% for president obama. vi% for governor romney. if you look at the real clear politics average of polls, this is roughly about that from september 25 to octobe october 2. if you go to the "wall street journal" poll about the economy, approval, how is president obama doing handling the economy? vi% approve. 51% disapprove. brit, while right track/wrong track is narrowing there is still real negative numbers in the polls for president obama. >> well, for romney to have a chance, there better be.

because that is the issue that is central. he had been gaining ground on the issue in a way a lot of people thought wasn't possible. if he has begun to retreat, romney needs that to happen. he needs to emerge from the whole campaign, the debates part of them as the person with the ability and the stronger plan for the economy. because this is not an economy that people find to their liking. not agreeable to people. that is where romney needs to be strong. >> bret: chuck, their target audience tonight? >> maybe state of ohio. i really mean that. without ohio, romney, most scenarios just can't win. he is going to have to come up with a message that tips ohio his way, and doesn't leigh out or ail yep nate anyone else -- alienate anyone else. he does seem to be trailing by a significant margin in ohio. i think he is going to have to do something that reaches out to the state. just to pick up on what brit said about the economy i was

interested to hear eric fehrnstrom decide the election twice as a choice. used to be that was supposed to be the way the obama campaign wanted to frame this thing. now that romney has embraced that, as opposed to the referendum thing, it does raise a little bit of self-imposed pressure on him to come up with as we were saying before the specifics about what it is that you would be choosing. if you were choosing and voting for romney. >> bret: john? >> yeah, i think there is, i think absolutely ohio, and all the groups that romney needs to do better with. but he needs to be more stark point out that obama is a liberal guy. only recently in one ad the romney campaign is willing to use words like "liberal" and "conservative." 40% of the people call themselves conservative and only 20% call themselves "liberal" pointing out to people this guy has not run as a centrist or moderate but to

the left of the democratic party, and that he has been too liberal for too long, a message that romney would help himself a lot with if he could stick it. >> bret: next up, final thoughts from the panel. as the countdown continues to the big night here in denver. ♪ forz(power!) andiamo! andiamo! (let's go! let's go!) avanti! avanti! (keep going! keep going!) hahaha...hahahaha! you know ronny, folks who save hundreds of dollars by switching to geico sure are happy. and how happy are they jimmy? happier than christopher columbus with speedboats. that's happy! get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. begins with back pain and a choice. take advil, and maybe have to take up to four in a day. or take aleve,

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nobody could have fixed this much damage in four years. but the president's economic plan is better in a short run, better in the long run, and a vision of we're all in this together is a heck of a lot better than you're on your own. >> the american middle class is hurting. you know why the american middle class is hurting? the policies that barack obama

is imposing on the united states haven't worked anywhere in the world they have ever been tried. never. >> bret: florida senator marco rubio and former president bill clinton two big campaigners for both sides welcome campaigners. back with the panel. jeff, you listen to them on the stump. those campaigns have to like when they're out in battleground states. >> which is why they sent them out there. president clinton, the chicago headquarters of the obama campaign would like to have president clinton out there more. he has other things on the schedule. not a coincident he is in new hampshire today. he will spend time in florida i'm told. ness as well. places where the economy still needs, people need to be convinced that the economy is doing better. senator rubio, he is campaigning aggressively, but not in florida oddly. he spends most time around the country. a little bit interesting. doing his own work at the same

time. >> bret: is this debate as turning point, a point? >> big moment. you can't have an event watched by 50 million plus people, particularly those who have not decided or tuned in and not be a big deal. the last three debates are the last real national events in the presidential election. >> bret: chuck? >> well, i think it's a big moment but not necessarily a turning point. we've got two more of them still to come. so almost can't be a turning point because another is coming along. i do think that there is always the potential for that surprise. that ronald reagan moment. that, you know, quip no one was anticipating that seems to sort of, you know, grab the public attention. it can be for good or ill.

for both of the candidates the challenge is really to be relaxed enough to get the message across in a way but not so loose you trip over your tongue and cause yourself harm. candidly it's mitt romney who has had the problem in the appearances lately. in that regard, i think if he makes it through without doing anything like that, that alope puts him in game. >> bret: one thing you watch is the dynamic between the two. what is not spoken. just body language, kind of the interaction. what do r you looking for in the first 30 minutes let's say? >> we have never seen them together on a stage. they met once or twice before. it will be interesting to see how it plays out. we can think of one debate where the body language between the two candidates made a difference. bush versus gore, gore acted

supercilious and condescending toward governor bush. it played badly with the public. went over badly. he was sighing and went over and stood in his space. and bush looked at him. that was body language. there aren't many of those. truth is as important as they are and as many people watch them it's not usual for a debate to really change trajectory of a race but it can happen. that's why we're so interested tonight. it could happen because of body language or a spontaneous moment that chuck mentioned or it could happen over the course of the threedy debates, the whole package of them the public impression in two men is adjusted in a way that one or the other emerges as somebody they will vote and they were undecided about in first place. we have don't know how it will play out. maybe it's not a moment. there may never be a moment. no body language or a nothing debate. can anybody remember anything from the debate four years ago between mccain and obama? i certainly can't. >> bret: very little. >> very little. >> uneventful debate. they happen.

>> that is the first time we saw senator obama then at the time hold his own with the older statesman, more experienced person. >> bret: by the way, he started in the first debate calling him john. he didn't call him senator. he called him john. i'd be interesting to see does he call mitt romney "mitt" or "governor"? >> i assume he'll call him governor and one thing we have to find out. we don't know. for practicing they do, once the dynamic is up there it's easy to get under president obama's skin i think. from some of his channelers that said that before. people who debated him. we'll see. well practiced to not be smug. on the same side, governor romney, he can't sort of call for help as he did in the debate in the primary. >> what i would suggest to the president is don't call him "mittens." >> bret: that would be bad. jonah, final word. >> it's interesting that obama become has to practice hard not to be smug. that shows a vulnerability on his part. she much less persuasive in

public -- he is much less persuasive in public speaking than people think he is or he thinks he is. that's something the advisors have a hard time explaining to him. >> bret: jonah, brit, chuck and jeff, thank you very much. that is it for the panel. stay tuned. for some time thoughts from here in the spin room.

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>> bret: we should really call this the pressroom/spin room. but finally tonight we asked for your opinion on the most memorable debate moment. ronald reagan to president carter in 1980 "there you go again" about charges on medicare. 80%. jack benson you are no jack kennedy. 11%. al gore sig 8%. there is no nomination of eastern europe. 1%. we had 5,000 votes tonight. as we take a inside the debate hall. again, we are two hours away from the president and governor romney walking on this stage and they will walk on president obama won the coin toss. he will take the first question. it will be an interesting, interesting night inside this hall. please stay right here on fox news channel for debate coverage all evening